It is to bad the boat is no longer made and parts are sort of hard to find. The owners and captains of the Hobie 21 should look at your boats and list all the improvements and changes that have been done over the years to make sailing more fun. This week I will go down to my boat and list all the things that I have changed or modified on the boat from stock. If all the owners would do this I think I would get some fresh ideas for a great boat which is so much fun. I will list ideas for trailering rigging hardware sails safety mooring cat trax beach storage winter protection. Someone needs to find a good way to fix the holes where the taper pins are located. My Hobie 21 SE is 20 years old but I want to keep it going as long as I can. Any Hobie dealer that helps keep these boats sailing deserves many thanks.

On the Water Storage
I keep my boat stored on Lake Norman on the water mast up
I use 4 black poly floats with 2X6 wood frame boat rests on the floats
A small deck area is in the front to rig jib and get boat ready to launch
Small winch in front to get boat up on floats

Winter Storage
Large Mason Jar lids siliconed over the wing holes
I have used duct tape and had it fail
Place foam pipe insulation in wing hole as a fail safe
Tilt boat up and remove hull plugs

Tips
Leaks in the wing holes can be located using water
fill the wing hole and come back in one hour
The top of the water level will be the area of the crack
Marine Tex can be smeared on the crack with a piece of PVC conduit
Mark the crossbars with a paint stick at the fully extended point
This gives a point of reference to stop extending the crossbars
On the beach bury anchor under the dolphin rod and tie to boat
I have had my boat blow over in a storm on the beach
I never let crew walk down the middle of the hulls to keep out the de-lam problem
Always keep a rope tow harness in one of the hull storage ports
Carry a quality waterproof VHF radio with weather channel

The boat
Calvert sails Jib and Main square head
Quick release pins and rigs where ever possible
Bungee righting system
Shroud extender system
Cheata motor bracket with Merc 3 HP
Black Bungee cords used from Murrays Marine
Mesh tramps all boat
Real Cat Trax rubber tires
A hobie box with spare parts
Sister screws on rudder cams
Sister clips on jib hayalard
large cooler
Real Cat House Key and keep it around your neck on cord
Box of marine tex epoxy
EZ mast up system
A good quality paddle
I use a SS bolt and a SS nut with nylon lock wherever I can on the boat instead of the pin and wire keeper
I use the above on the shackles also

I wish I could offer more, but I really haven't done any real mods to my boat. I did finally get the graphics on though.

I did add a mast retainer cable to try to keep the mast base from leaving the ball, and if it does not travel too far. I don't know if I'd recommend my solution as I had to drill a hole through the dolphin striker rod. I tried to do it a couple of different ways, but they all interfered with either stepping the mast or it's rotation. I'd post a pic, but my boats apart and the camera just crapped out.

Oh brother, this could take a while. I chose the 21SE for the performance and seaworthiness. My wife and I sail it only for day sailing. Here's the list.
Cheetah bracket with 2 HP Honda- love it. 6 kts and excellent harbor maneuvering, weighs 28 lbs., but $$$. We can venture way out and not worry about calm conditions, not unusual here in summer late afternoon.
9"x12" Bomar hatches- excellent, fits folding chairs and small coolers, wetsuits, drybags, camp stove and steaming pot for lobster, steamed clams, gas can, etc.
Shroud extenders, the really long ones not just the hyfield levers. This has been very valuable when I've had masthead problems. Releasing the extender on one side makes it easy to pull the boat over with the main halyard in shallow water (after the wing is removed on that side). Since the upper hull (when capsized) never goes over center it's easy to send it back upright.
Big tramp bag hold the rest of the stuff.
Pentex squaretop and dacron jib from Whirlwind sails- the originals were finally just totally gone, I didn't realize how much better the new sails would be. Chip did a great job on these, and wife likes the white sails' appearance.
Single reefpoint on mainsail just above the first batten, we are overpowered with only two crew, really settles the boat in a breeze. Reefs the 21SE main down to 21SC size.
Forward tramp- excellent for anchoring, we don't beach the boat, and dealing with headstay rigging, or lounging for crew on a long flatwater motoring stretch. Handy for fishing gear.
Hooter on second headstay roller furler- new this year, great for light air, can close haul or broad reach, excellent performance but adds a LOT of extra rigging, it's a big sail, 19'-6" at the foot.
Modified (this is a safety must) gin pole for mast stepping, a self braking winch really helps.
We just got two folding seats from West Marine. They're kind of bulky but make long slow sailing tacks much more comfortable for our aging bones. They are foam cushioned with backs that sit on the hulls and lean against the wings, then fold fairly flat for storage. Great for creaky backs and awesome for lunching, cocktail hour at achor.
Stabilizers on the trailer crossbars- boat sits on trailer mast up for season, extra width and five point stance keeps her upright.
I made the trailer, boat did not come with one. Real PIA fighting the salt air attack on the steel trailer parts. It has inner and outer vertical bunks to guide and hold her on the trailer. I use screw drives to articulate the sliding roller bunks when expanding and contracting the hulls. I drive them with a 12V cordless impact driver, works like a charm, but loud.
I recently had quite a time dealing with a loose crossbar bearing. If you see a lot of movement at the crossbar joint to the hull tube your bearings have probably come loose. Contact me and I can help with that.
Brian C. (Dog) at Mariner Sails in Dallas has always been very good at helping me with parts and advice. Matt has chimed in and supplied old parts quite a few times too. Pretty cool for a twenty year old boat, she's heavy by modern standards but has held up very well. A really well made boat.

We broke out some champagne on the beach this year to celebrate her twentieth birthday.

The pins are a critical area. A good heliarc welder should be able to weld the worn holes down smaller then you can re-cut them so the pins are tight again. This is only a job for someone with machining experience. The pins should be greased to prevent galling and enlarging the holes.

Last edited by Beachboy on Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have thought about having the radio on board. And although there are deffinatly times that i just want silence. Last weekend when i had 6 People on board with no wind and a dead motor, would have been a great time to have some tunes to keep people engaged.

All of the stereo's I've seen have been mounted in the cabin. The speakers were mounted through the cabin doors. Some round, some 6 x 9. The cabin also housed the motorcycle battery for power. You could epoxy some wood to the cabin to provide a place to screw into w/o drilling through the cabin shell. Or you could clamp speakers to the wing poles....but they're gonna get wet.

I looked at one in dash radio/cd/mp player that also had a weather radio band. Might be useful. You can find plastic weather proof radio boxes that swivel to accept in dash units fairly cheap to mount inside or on top of the cabin.

If you have a Ipod or other MP player you might also look into a "T amp" like this
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl ... er=300-958that will run of of AA batteries. It should provide about the same power as a standard in dash player driving 4 ohm speakers. I've seen them sell as low as $25 if you're willing to look for them.